Chapter 32: Alone with My Wife
The festival's warmth faded the deeper they pushed into the treeline. Violet's heels sank into the soft earth, and she squeezed Cassian's hand, laughing breathless as he pulled her along. Behind them, the drums of Lupercalia pulsed like a second heartbeat, but ahead there was only moonlight and the rustle of leaves.
"Where are we going?" she asked, her skirts catching on a low branch.
"Somewhere better," Cassian said, golden eyes glinting over his shoulder.
Evander appeared at her other side, his hand settling on the small of her back, guiding her past a curtain of ferns. "We promised you a first night worth remembering."
She stumbled over a root and both kings caught her, bracketing her against the night air. Their scents wrapped around her, pine and smoke and that singular musk that made her knees weak. Her wedding dress whispered against her thighs, damp at the hem from the earlier rain.
"I thought the tent was enough," she said, breathless. "You didn't need to do anything else."
Cassian laughed low in his chest. "Wife," he said, drawing the word out like honey, "you're going to learn that we don't do anything halfway."
He pressed her back against a broad oak. The rough bark scraped through the thin silk of her dress. His arms came up, framing her head, caging her against the trunk. One hand cupped her jaw, tilting her face to the moonlight. The other gripped her ass, fingers sinking into the curve of it, possessively.
"Look at you," he murmured. "Queen of both packs. Married beneath the eclipse. And still mine to pin against a tree whenever I want."
"Ours," Evander corrected from behind her.
She felt his breath on the nape of her neck, then the scrape of his teeth against her shoulder, right over the frosted moon rune. A shiver ran through her hard enough to rattle her teeth.
"Ours," Cassian agreed, and kissed her.
It was slow at first, his mouth warm and coaxing, tasting of festival wine. His tongue slid along hers and she moaned, arching against him. The hand on her jaw tightened, not enough to hurt, just enough to remind her who held her. Behind her, Evander pressed his chest against her back, trapping her between them, and she felt both of them against her, hard and demanding.
"We should show you something," Evander said, his voice a rough scrape against her ear.
"Show me?" She sounded dazed. She felt dazed.
"Turn," Cassian commanded softly.
She obeyed, and the world tilted. Evander had her now, his arms sliding around her waist, his mouth finding the rune on her shoulder, kissing it slow and filthy. Cassian moved past them, a shadow in the dark, and disappeared beyond a craggy outcropping of stone.
"That's the entrance," Evander said, his voice dropping to a husky murmur. "Cassian scouted it the first night. We came back to finish it while you danced."
"Finish what?"
He didn't answer. His hands slid down her hips, his palms pressing flat against her ass, squeezing, kneading through the silk. "Lean on me," he said.
She did, and he lifted her. Instinct wrapped her legs around his waist and he caught her ass with both hands. He carried her across the clearing like she weighed nothing, and she laughed, the sound swallowed by the dark trees.
"Evander!"
"Shh. Let the packs think we went back to the tent. This is ours."
He ducked through the entrance of the cave, and the world changed.
Furs. Dozens of them. Piled three deep across the stone floor. Pillows in every size, thrown in careless abundance. Candles in iron holders, their flames low and warm, casting dancing shadows against the rock walls. A low table with fruit and wine, bread and honey. The scent of cedar and juniper cut through the cool cave air.
And there, in the center of it all, stood Cassian.
He'd stripped off his tunic. His chest was bare, bronze and muscled, a dusting of dark hair trailing down his stomach. He smiled at her, that easy, wicked smile that made her thighs clench.
"Welcome home, wife."
Evander set her down on her feet, but she barely noticed. She turned in a slow circle, taking in the sheer scale of it. This wasn't a camp. This was a nest. A den.
"You made this?" Her voice came out hushed.
"We made this," Cassian corrected, moving toward her. "Evander had the idea. I found the cave. We spent the last two hours hauling furs and candles before you woke from your nap."
She remembered now. She'd fallen asleep in the tent after the ceremony, exhausted and glowing, and they'd told her to rest. She'd thought they were going to check on something. On this. They'd built her a sanctuary while she slept.
"Are you happy, wife?" Evander asked, his hands coming to her shoulders, thumbs brushing the runes. "Is this enough for you?"
She turned her head, kissing his knuckles. "You're asking if this is enough?" She shook her head, laughing. "Evander. Cassian. This is more than I ever knew to want."
Cassian closed the distance and hooked a finger under her chin, tilting her face up. His smile softened. "You can have whatever you want now," he said. "Anything. Always. Say it until you believe it."
"Anything," she repeated, the word tasting strange in her mouth.
"Tonight," Evander murmured, "we're going to worship you. The way we should have the first night. Nothing rushed, nothing chased by daylight."
"So slow," Cassian added, his thumb tracing her lower lip. "We have all night, wife. It's our wedding night. No eclipse to call us, no packs to answer. Just us."
Her heart hammered. Her body already felt the pulse between her thighs, that low, steady ache she knew all too well when they looked at her like this.
"Show me," she whispered.
Evander turned her slowly, his hands working the laces at the back of her dress. He kissed her shoulder as they loosened, then her spine, then the dip of her lower back as the silk fell away. The cool cave air kissed her skin, and she gasped.
Cassian knelt.
Not in some grand gesture, just a drop to his knees in front of her as the dress pooled at her feet. He looked up at her, golden eyes burning, his hands sliding up her thighs, over her hips, over the curve of her belly.
"Beautiful," he said. "Every time. I'll never get used to it."
"Good," Evander said from behind, his deep voice a purr against her ear. "Then we'll just have to spend the next three centuries reminding you."
Cassian closed his mouth over her cunt.
Violet's knees buckled. Evander caught her, steadying her against his chest, his hands sliding down her arms to hold her wrists. She gasped, a shattered sound that bounced off the cave walls.
"That's it," Cassian said against her, the words vibrating through her. "Open your legs for me, wife. Let me taste you."
She did. He lapped at her slow and deliberate, the flat of his tongue dragging through her folds, tasting every part of her. Her hands clenched in his dark hair, fingers twisting in the locks. She was already wet, embarrassingly so, and he moaned against her like he found the meal of his life.
"You did this," he murmured. "All this. This is what you do to me, Violet. Every time I look at you."
Behind her, Evander's hands slid up her body, cupping her breasts. His calloused thumbs found her nipples and rolled them until she whimpered. He pressed against her back, his cock hard against her ass, straining through his trousers.
"Whose are you?" Cassian asked, looking up at her, his chin glistening.
"Yours."
"Both of ours," Evander growled, and bit her shoulder gently.
Cassian's tongue dove into her again. He ate her like a starving thing, groaning against her flesh, two fingers sliding into her, crooking, finding the spot that made her see stars. She cried out, throwing her head back against Evander's chest.
"There it is," Cassian said, muffled. "Come for us, wife. Right on my tongue."
She shattered. Her orgasm ripped through her, a violent wave that had her legs shaking and her scream ringing off the stone. Cassian kept lapping through it, dragging every last pulse out of her until she sagged, boneless, in Evander's arms.
"Good girl," he said, kissing the inside of her thigh. "Beautiful."
"Tired, my love?" Evander asked, turning her in his arms.
She nodded, breathless.
"Good. Then we take you to bed."
He scooped her up, and Cassian rose to pull back the furs. The nest swallowed her whole, soft and warm and smelling of them. She sank into it, and the kings followed.
Cassian came over her first, his weight settling between her thighs. He kissed her deep, and she tasted herself on his lips. Evander moved up behind her, spooning himself around her, his hands roaming her body, his mouth on her shoulder.
"Tell me what you want," Cassian said, his voice roughened with want.
"Everything," she breathed.
"We can do that," Evander murmured, and bit her earlobe.
Cassian reached down between their bodies, positioned himself, and pressed into her in one slow, unrelenting stroke.
She gasped, arching, her fingers digging into his shoulders. He filled her completely, the heat of him overwhelming. He held still, letting her adjust, his forehead dropping to hers.
"Fuck, Violet," he breathed. "You feel like heaven."
"Move," she demanded.
He did. Long, slow, grinding thrusts that dragged against every sensitive spot inside her. He watched her face the whole time, golden eyes dark with hunger, his thumb brushing her cheek. Behind her, Evander's hands moved over her body, touching everywhere, worshipping her.
"You're ours," Cassian said, his voice breaking on the last word. "Say it."
"Yours," she moaned.
Evander's fingers found her clit and circled it slow. She bucked between them, caught on the dual sensation of Cassian filling her and Evander pulling her higher.
"Again," Evander commanded.
"Yours. Both of yours. God, I'm so close."
"Come with me," Cassian ordered, and she did.
The orgasm hit like lightning, blind and consuming. She screamed Cassian's name as her body clenched around him, and he followed, roaring, spilling into her with deep, violent pulses. Behind her, Evander groaned, and she felt him spill against her back, his release hot between her thighs.
They collapsed together, a tangle of limbs and furs, breathing hard.
For a long moment, no one spoke. The candles guttered low. The cave held only the sound of their ragged breaths.
Evander was the first to move. He kissed her shoulder, then her neck, then her lips, soft and reverent. Cassian pulled her against his chest, tucking her head under his chin.
"We should have built this cave sooner," Cassian murmured.
"Centuries sooner," Evander agreed, his hand finding hers and squeezing.
Violet laughed, the sound watery. She felt full in a way that had nothing to do with the meal on the table. "I'm glad you didn't. That slow build, getting to know you both, it made this worth more than anything fast."
Cassian kissed her forehead. "Anything you want, wife," he said again. "Anything at all."
She looked between the two of them, at their faces softened in the candlelight, at the marks on her shoulders that tied them together forever.
"Then stay," she said, her voice firm now. "Stay with me, both of you. Not just tonight. For three hundred more years. That's what I want."
Cassian and Evander exchanged a look. Then both their smiles spread, slow and wicked and sure.
"Three hundred years," Cassian repeated, and kissed her. "We'll see your immortal arse in that cave in three hundred years and do it all again."
Evander laughed, low and warm against her skin. "We'll hold you to that, wife."